Latest School Breakfast Scorecard: Shows Improvement
Posted by Kim Caldwell on Friday, February 3, 2012
On Tuesday, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) released their latest reports on the state of school breakfast in America. The School Breakfast Scorecard and School Breakfast in America’s Big Cities show that in the 2010-2011 school year, more kids ate school breakfast than ever before – but that there is much room for improvement.
We all know that breakfast is important, and the School Breakfast Program is there to make sure that no kid has to start their day by missing a meal. However, despite a 3.8% increase in participation over the previous school year, the report shows that more than half of all kids who eat a subsidized school lunch don’t eat a school breakfast.
Here are a few highlights from the report:
In the 2010–2011 school year, 48.2 children ate school breakfast for every 100 children in the U.S. who ate school lunch. This was up from a ratio of 47.2:100 in 2009–2010 and from 46.1:100 in 2007-2008.
While any schools participating in the National School Lunch Program can also offer the School Breakfast Program, only 88.1 percent did so in 2010–2011, compared to 87.1 percent in 2009-2010.
Five states achieved double-digit growth in the numbers of children receiving free or reduced-price breakfasts: DC (32.0 percent), Connecticut (14.1 percent), Nevada (13.6 percent), Rhode Island (10.9 percent) and Wisconsin (10.6 percent).
The Houston Independent School District increased breakfast participation by 45 percent over the previous school year, serving almost 30,000 more children by adopting breakfast in the classroom.
Nationally, if the school breakfast to lunch ratio had reached the goal of 60:100, schools could have served 2.4 million more children breakfast and states would have drawn down at least $583 million in additional federal funding in school year 2010–2011.
Increasing access to school breakfast is an important part of the No Kid Hungry Campaign. Twelve state and local No Kid Hungry campaigns are focused on growing breakfast participation, whether by advocating for legislation or working with schools to implement proven programs like breakfast in the classroom.
Visit our No Kid Hungry Center for Best Practices website to learn more about how No Kid Hungry means more kids eating breakfast and see how your state stacks up on our interactive State of Hunger Map.
February 3, 2012 | 0 comment(s) | Tags: frac, no kid hungry, school breakfast, school meals
Post a comment
All fields are required (your e-mail address will not be displayed)